Abdul Rashid Khan
In last 4 decades, the Srinagar city has expanded manifold. With the increase in population and urbanization, the development of roads has not kept pace with the increasing urbanization and vehicular traffic in the city and its suburbs. The increasing tendency of people for construction of Malls, Hotels, private hospitals and other business units, even in residential colonies/ locations has further worsened the situation. While granting permission/NOC for construction of these buildings, the concerned authorities do not anticipate the fallout of the Traffic rush. They have no idea of assessing the actual number of vehicles which are going to be parked there. The mushroom growth of such business activities without having any consideration for parking, have created many problems for the people residing in the nearby areas and has even made their lives hell at some places. The granting of car loans for purchase of private cars to their customers by J.K. Bank has further contributed to the increase in the number of light motor vehicles. This all has lead to traffic jams in almost all the areas of down and up town and suburbs of the summer capital of J&K Union Territory. Though the Government has made available number of parking slots in Lal Chowk and nearby areas but these are still insufficient to cater the demands in comparison to increasing volume of vehicular traffic. Therefore there is need of further augmentation of these parking slots. Previously Lal Chowk was the only trade centre in uptown area but with the expansion of city many new markets have come up. Therefore the authorities concerned need to create more paid parking places near these trade centres to ease the inconvenience which the public is facing when they go out for shopping. Since these business units have not kept parking facilities, the shoppers have to either park their vehicles on main road causing obstruction to the smooth flow of traffic or defer their idea of shopping. The widening of roads, to have more fly-over and bridges over river Jhelum may to some extent help in the dispersal of congested traffic.
Now-a-days, the traffic Jams and road blockades on NHW between Ramban and Banihal sector have become common, causing undue sufferings to the commuters and other passengers travelling on this road. No doubt this is because of widening of NHW for making it Four Lane road. But this process has not only disturbed the eco-system and biodiversity of the area but the stability of mountains also besides consuming the number of human lives. In the past there used to be traffic blockades on this highway, in winter and rainy season only because of landslides but during last few years, these things have been happening even in summer and on sunny days also. This stretch should have been kept as two lane road only to save the environment and biodiversity of the area. The two lane-NHW between these two points should have been widened to the extent only that the driving at blind curves and vulnerable places remain safe and comfortable.
Blocked road crossings/inter-sections
One of the leading English daily news paper of Kashmir In its editorial dated;- 14th June, has rightly discussed the issue of blocking of the road crossings and diversions created by traffic department on important roads in Srinagar city particularly on by-pass. This has put the commuters not only to tremendous inconvenience but to a great risk, by entering from Rawalpora and Sanatnagar side into the opposite lanes of National Highway at these diversion points of Sanantnagar crossing. The intersection is the only point, meant to take diversions for the drivers, under road management and traffic rules. Lot of tax payer’s money has been spent on traffic lights /CCTV’S, on these intersections to manage and regulate traffic smoothly. This step by the traffic police is not only against the traffic management and rules but is also endangering the lives of commuters. This unwanted diversion at Sannatnagar crossing has further lead to the extended traffic jam up to Rawalpora market, un-heard in the past. This unwarranted blockade of intersections is not found anywhere in the rest of the country or in the advanced or civilised countries of the world. Even in Jammu, we do not find any such blockades at road crossings but the traffic is being regulated as per traffic signals. The traffic lights at all inter-sections in winter capital are functioning normally ensuring the smooth movement of traffic. The traffic wing of Kashmir should leave management and road engineering to concerned department of roads and building and national highway authority which are manned by highly professional engineers. Traffic department is mainly meant to regulate traffic and check traffic violations. Their duty is to ensure smooth flow of traffic to make travel easy and comfortable. The traffic department needs to close these diversions and remove the blockades from inter-sections/road crossings as suggested by the Newspaper in its editorial to ease the sufferings of commuters and ensure their safe crossing. NTA was supposed to construct overhead bridge on bypass road at crossings of Nowgam, Sanant-nagar and Bemina. However the construction of overhead bridges at Nowgam and Bemina is in progress but at Sanantnagar chowk it has not been yet started for the reasons best known to the concerned authority.
Road from Sanantnagar Chowk to Rangrett
This was previously known as old airport road. As the HQR of IAF is located at Rangrett, in the past, Air force aerodrome also served as the civil airport till it was shifted to the new airport at Humama. This road had very low intensity of traffic flow in 1960’s. As only few RTC buses and cars would ply on this road. But with expansion of Srinagar city many new unplanned private colonies have come-up on both sides of this road in last two decades. Rangrett in recent years has become an important station as it houses the HQRS of IAF, GREF(Becons), JAKLI and industrial estate. Due to these reasons, there is always heavy rush of traffic of all sorts of vehicles on this road starting from Rangret and passing through Wanbal, Rawalpora and Sanantnagar. Since the traffic on this road has increased manifold, the status of road is the same as it was in 1960’s. Further the movement of non-civilian convoy takes place now and then and this road remains busy with the heavy rush of traffic. Movement of such traffic has made the road most vulnerable. Keeping the vulnerability, importance and heavy rush of traffic in view, the GOI had approved the proposal to make it four-lane road. But the implementation of the said proposal has not seen the day of light. The road in question needs, widening, to make it four lane, having footpath on both sides to ease the traffic rush and ensure the safety of pedestrians.
(The author is former IGP)
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